ABSTRACT
This involved interviewing all the central agencies as well as talking to the prostitute women themselves to identify their health and social needs and to assess priority areas. This stage began with members of the project team taking an ethnographic approach and immersing themselves with the prostitutes working on the streets. Using an ethnographic approach allowed discussions with the women without the threat of structured interviews and questionnaires. Ethnographic approaches may strengthen the evaluation and allow the target group to participate in the assessment. Ethically it was important to let the women know exactly why they were being questioned and also to assess their needs and possible recruitment for the drop-in centre. By not pushing the ‘women’ into conversations and getting to know them a more trusting atmosphere could be developed where the women could talk and share conversations. This style of methodology provided for recruitment of prostitutes to the drop-in centre and allowed them to ask about health issues which might be worrying them and to see the practitioner and the service as a source of knowledge, information and support.
